Holy Cross sophomore keeper Reed Gravolet stood over his penalty kick after making a key save just seconds before and then calmly gave the Tigers their first win over Ben Franklin in four years.

Gravolet made two saves on penalty kicks and then scored the game-winner as Holy Cross knocked off Ben Franklin 4-2 in penalty kicks in a District 7-II match at Pan American Stadium on Friday afternoon.

“I was just thinking I’ve got to put it in the net,” Gravolet said. “I just tried to stay calm and focus on the ball. It felt pretty good. We practice shootouts a lot, so I was ready for it. I was pretty excited, but in the moment, I just tried to stay focused.”

The win created a three-way tie for first in District 7-II between Holy Cross, Lakeshore and Ben Franklin at the end of the first round of district play.

Holy Cross senior Antoine Regnard, who had an assist, said the game was very important to the Tigers seniors.

“This game meant a lot; it meant so much to us,” he said. “This is the first time in four years that we beat them. Over Christmas break, we’ve been conditioning, conditioning, conditioning for games like this in case we do go into overtime, we have the chance to get on going. Tonight, it paid off.”

Early on, it seemed as though the Falcons (7-3-2, 4-1) would continue their district dominance. Ben Franklin scored in the second minute when senior Aalian Rahman worked his way deep into the corner and provided a perfect cross to a streaking Miles McGwire, who directed it past the keeper.

The Falcons controlled play for the first 20 minutes, but Holy Cross (12-5-2, 4-1) answered on its first quality scoring opportunity. In the 22nd minute, Regnard fought for a through ball into the box and flicked it over the header of charging Ben Franklin keeper Atticus Wilcow. Luke Cutrera headed the ball into the net to tie the score at 1.

“Giving up that early goal was tough, but we kept our heads in the game,” Holy Cross Coach Oscar Hernandez said. “I told our boys that we needed to keep our composure for 80 minutes. Getting our goal gave us a boost of confidence against a very good team. It was a back and forth game in the second half, but in the end, it worked out for us.”

The Falcons outshot Holy Cross 17 to 7 but couldn’t net a second goal. Ben Franklin had nine corner kicks, and Falcons Coach Jose Ferrand said finishing was the difference.

“They defended well,” he said. “They stacked the box and forced us to make bad decisions in the final third. Overall, we didn’t capitalize when we had our opportunities. We outshot them, but that’s soccer. When you keep teams in the game, it comes to a point where they can finish the game late, even in PKs at the end.

“This year, we need to realize that we can’t take any team lightly. We just have to finish our opportunities, because if you don’t, things like this happen. It’s a learning experience, so hopefully they can get that out of their system and finish the rest of district with wins.”

Hernandez said: “I knew it was going to come down to the fourth or fifth kicker. Reed is actually the least experienced of my kickers, but he came through. I told him to just relax, and he came through. What this does is it throws the district upside down. We have a three-way tie for first so it’ll be settled in the second round. This is the first time that we’ve beaten a Top 5 team in the state. It was really a great win.”